City police arrest 2 believed to be part of big cocaine ring

Baltimore police have arrested two men who they say are major players in the "Dirty South" drug organization believed to be responsible for supplying about 6 kilos of cocaine every week to various sections of the city -- including Southwest, Northwest and Fells Point.

Bryan K. Bivins, 30, and Mark Stancil, 29, both of 18th Street in Newark, N.J., are suspected of bringing cocaine into Maryland and using an Owings Mills house as their local base of operations, police said at a morning news conference yesterday.

The men were arrested late Saturday night outside a McDonald's restaurant at Franklin Street and Warwick Avenue as they walked toward a gold Lexus, police said. They were being held yesterday on $10 million bail.

Bivins had a kilo of cocaine strapped to his thigh when he was arrested, detectives said. The street value of all of the cocaine found in their possession -- 4 1/2 kilos -- is nearly $500,000, police said.

Police allege that Bivins and Stancil conducted the Baltimore end of their drug operation in an Owings Mills house on a quiet residential street in the 200 block of Pittston Circle. They are also suspected of keeping some of their cocaine supply in a safe at a Days Inn in Anne Arundel County, detectives said.

"That gave them spatial distance [from Owings Mills], a buffer zone," said Sgt. Mark D. Janicki, who made the arrests. The suspects are near the top of the drug organization's hierarchy, police said.

Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris said the two arrests were a crucial step toward breaking up the Dirty South drug organization, which has become active in Fells Point, Butchers Hill, and Southwest and Northwest Baltimore.

"We get complaints about picking `low-hanging fruit,' arresting junkies off the street," Norris said. "This is more the head of the snake. ... Now we'll be able to flip people, solve unsolved homicides and shake up the drug trade."

Police said the drug network has apparently flourished on Baltimore streets. About $13,000 in cash, weapons, jewels, cell phones and four cocaine blocks, which police seized from Bivins and Stancil, were put on display by police yesterday. The weapons included a World War II vintage machine gun, a Glock semi-automatic handgun and a Taser stun baton.

The 1998 Lexus from the McDonald's parking lot was also seized, police said.

The two arrests were the result of a monthlong investigation that involved city police working with Baltimore County police and a federal Drug Enforcement Administration task force, police officials said.